Stu has been in training for over a year now. My, how time flies when I spent most of it laying sick in bed! But I had the cause of my sickness forcibly evicted, so that part is behind me. Let’s look ahead to the future.
Wait no, we aren’t looking ahead yet – we are looking at how Stu is doing now! We are looking at now, now. The present. Let’s see what my man Stu is doing currently.
On the last Stu update, I went to go see him at his farm. That was last summer. Wow, it’s been a while. I haven’t gone to see him again. In fact, even this update is just with images supplied by his trainer. She sent me videos, and I screenshotted parts of them, so it’s kind of like I took the photo.
(The weather has been improving though, and my boys are almost big enough to take down there, so I will be making a trip in the somewhat near future!)
Here is my Stu. Stu enjoys standing at posts he’s tied to, and climbing on mounds of stone dust. At least he does now, I don’t think he liked to do either of these things before.
Stu also enjoys standing pretty in arenas and having cones thrown at him.
Didn’t even flinch. Here’s another one for good measure.
Another one of his hobbies is to drag tarps around. It’s good for the mind.
He’s been doing some trotting.
And some cantering.
If you’re wondering why there are no mounted photos, it’s because she’s only one person and can’t take photos of herself riding.
Overall, he’s being a good boy. He’s still slow, and still has a turtle walk, but he greatly enjoys new things, trails, and jumping. He perks up when he’s doing those things, and he seems up for anything. He’s a kick ride, and she’s had to use a crop a few times. He has not bucked or reared, but has tossed out an occasional kick. His trainer says it’s more playful than anything. And… she thinks he’d love hunter classes, hunter paces, field hunters… basically all the hunters.
Frankly, he sounds like EXACTLY what I wanted. To say I’m super excited and pleased is an understatement. I’m not going to pat myself too hard on the back for picking him as a three day old foal (did I mention I picked him out as a three day old foal?) since I haven’t even ridden him yet. I could discover I actually hate riding him. But this is looking pretty incredible.
What a change from being so angry at this horse I would have sold him for peanuts. Oh silly past me, you are a joker!